IT is with regret that we notice this month the decease of the well-known Rev. Alexander Auld, Free Church minister of Olrig, who passed away on Thursday, 27th October, at the ripe age of 85 years. Mr. Auld was in failing health for some time, and so unable to take much part in public work. By his removal there has passed away a venerable personality and an interesting link with the past.
A native of Wick and a nephew of the “great Mr. Gunn,” minister of Watten, Mr. Auld laboured for many years in Olrig among the people of his own county, and his services were much appreciated. He was an able and original preacher, powerful in the use of illustration, and a master of allegory. His sermons on the Song of Solomon were remarkably quaint and striking. He also possessed a very keen insight into the workings of human nature, whether in the regenerate or unregenerate, and his apt remarks in this connection were not soon forgotten. As a man taught of the Spirit, he was exceedingly helpful to the Lord’s people amid their various ups and downs, and had more than ordinary ability in speaking a word in season to them that are weary. A well-trained theologian, he handled difficult points with great skill. Few could deal better than he with the facts of man’s inability and responsibility in relation to his acceptance of the free offer of the gospel, giving each aspect of truth its own appropriate place, and storming by a variety of reasons drawn from Scripture and experience the citadel of the sinner’s heart. It may be remarked that there was nothing formal or “starchy” about Mr. Auld’s utterances in the pulpit. He was at all times very natural and real in his preaching, and while he could express himself in choice and dignified language according to the nature of the subject in hand, he often delighted his hearers by his homely turns of speech and fireside applications of the truth he was expounding. These almost invariably hit the mark, and could not fail to leave an impression either for better or worse in the consciences of his audience. In fact, there was a touch of genius about Mr. Auld’s mental equipment that showed itself both in his sermons and his writings.
As an author, Mr. Auld has been favourably known for many years past, and his name in this respect will continue to be honoured with grateful regard for generations to come. He is most widely renowned for his famous book on “Ministers and Men in the Far North.” This volume at its first appearance in 1869 was hailed with delight by people of all ranks and classes throughout the kingdom. He handled the characters and lives of the eminent worthies described with such ability and skill that the work was read with avidity and delight not only by the Lord’s people who appreciated its spiritual character, but by a wide circle of persons who had only an intellectual or historical interest in it. It received warm eulogies from the London press and other newspapers north and south. A second edition was published in 1891, which is now sold out, but it is hoped that a third will soon be issued. Mr. Auld also wrote a Life of Dr. Kennedy, Dingwall, the only elaborate Life that has been written, and a substantial contribution towards a complete biography of that eminent minister of Christ. The author confessed it was “only a contribution,” and while it may have been somewhat disappointing in respect of fulness and finish to many of the admirers of the great man whose career it portrayed, yet the fault, if any, was not Mr. Auld’s, and the work is valuable in its own place as a memorial of the doctor. Mr. Auld published in 1874 a neat little volume entitled “Memorials of David Steven,” which gives a very interesting account of that remarkable patriarch of the North. The substance of the narrative is now embodied in the “Ministers and Men,” but the little volume itself, with portrait of David Steven, is still to be had, and is distinctly worth possessing.
Mr. Auld in his days of vigour took a prominent part in Church matters, and was a resolute opponent of innovations in doctrine and worship. Many Free Presbyterians regretted he did not see his way to associate himself with the testimony for truth raised by the Rev. Messrs. Macfarlane and Macdonald in 1893, but it was some satisfaction that he refused to enter the Union of 1900, and that he then declared his determination to stand at all risks by the doctrines and principles of the Free Church.
The writer desires to record this humble tribute to the memory of a man of gifts and grace who as preacher and author did good service to the Church of God in his generation, and is now fallen asleep. Much sympathy is felt for Mrs. Auld (a daughter of the late Rev. Dr. Taylor, Thurso) and family. J. S. S.